Children think with their hands.

I trained in art but found my place in the craft room, not the studio — because with the youngest children, making is thinking. A five-year-old threading beads is learning sequence and patience; a nine-year-old building a bridge from card is learning structure and failure. I get to teach all of that disguised as fun, which is the best trick in schooling.

Thirteen years and well over a thousand children later, I've built craft programmes from a cupboard of leftover supplies, run whole-school art weeks, and watched the 'naughty' child who couldn't sit through maths sit for an hour, tongue out in concentration, finishing a clay pot. That transformation is the whole reason I do this.

If your school wants an art & craft teacher who takes the subject seriously — safe with tools and little hands, endlessly resourceful with materials and budget, and able to get every single child making — my portfolio and references are ready. Give me the messiest class; mess with a purpose is my specialty.